SAR #8170

Do you ever wonder what the purpose
of the United States is?

Without FEMA: After three years since being damaged by Huricane Katrina, BP's long-delayed Thunder Horse platform in the Gulf of Mexico is finally pumping oil. Elsewhere, FEMA trailers are still in use in the wealthiest nation on earth.

On The Oil Bubble : What if it really is peak oil and there is no oil bubble, just supply, demand and shortages?

Relief: Saudi Arabia is increasing its petroleum output either 200,000 or 300,000 barrels a day - guesses vary. But India's Reliance refinery is contracting for 90,000 of those barrels - so immediately either one-third or one-half of the life-saving increase is gone. And the remaining 100,000 'new' barrels wouldn't impress my niece, much less the WTI spot market.

Geography Quiz: Locate Chad on the map. For extra credit, briefly explain why the US embassy in Chad has moved non-essential staff to Cameroon and suspended visa services.

Ker-Thunk - Inflation will prevent the Bank of England from cutting interest rates to bolster the economy, causing the UK housing market to simply crater. Deutsche Bank analyst Jim Reid says "The housing slump in the U.K. could easily turn into a crash".

What's The Score? Asked about the consequences of high energy prices, economist Dr. Stephen Leeb said simply: " I fear it is game over."

Is, Isn't, Do, Don't: The Senate, except for the one Senator who has any first hand knowledge of the subject, discussed the use of torture. Or the use techniques that are not torture because the US uses them and the US "does not torture" (phrase trademarked by the Bush administration). All I'd like to know is how many innocent people has the US tortured to get information they did not have? And isn't one too high a number?

Positive Spin: May housing starts were 32% below May 2007. Some see this as a cheerful development because it wasn't worse. On the other hand, it was over 50% below the levels of 2005 and 2006, reaching a 17 year low.

No Supper For Him: Brigadier-General James Ellery, Britian's top representative to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad asserts that alleviating a world petroleum shortage and keeping the Middle East out of Chinese hands were the prime reasons for the invasion of Iraq.

Hypocrisy: Do you find it odd that China and other totalitarian countries seek to insulate their citizens from the ravages of peak oil, but the democracies only care to protect the profits of the oil companies? Whatever happened to "We, the People?" Sold, on K street.

Delivery: There have been more-or-less successful trucker 'job actions' in England, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Thailand and others. How long before I-95 is a 5mp parade of semi's 3 abreast and 10 miles long? Or worse, they just park 'em? How long does Atlanta survive with no trucks?

Porn O'Graph: Housing Starts, or Not.